adminFredrick Mabikwa Successful Solutions
A STORY is told of a rich man who wanted to marry off his daughter to a brave man. When the daughter was due for marriage, the man advertised and all suitors of different shapes and sizes came to his homestead.He took all of them to his great swimming pool and told the suitors that he would give his daughter and half his wealth to the man who would swim across the pool.
As all the men were getting ready to dive into the swimming pool, a helicopter appeared from the skies and dropped crocodiles and alligators into the pool. As all the men were dressing up to leave, they heard a splash in the water. Someone had dived into the pool and was swimming across.
All the men watched in amazement as the “brave” man was swimming across, expertly avoiding the dangerous animals. He made it to the other end and emerged from the water.
The rich man could not believe it and immediately announced him as his new son in-law. The man was immediately seen running fast to his fellow suitors and said in low tones: “After collecting my wife and wealth, I want to see that fool who pushed me into the water and almost got me killed by the bloody animals.”
There are a number of morals we learn from this great story. As we start the New Year, let us get started with renewed energy to face the year. A lot of challenges and opportunities await us. We need to be geared up to face the New Year with its challenges and opportunities.
Many a time, we underestimate our abilities and capacities and let opportunities fly past us. We don’t realise the energy and potential in ourselves and think certain things are meant for certain people. We don’t know what we are capable of doing, until we are pushed.
We need a bit of discomfort to get started. Some of us think the good things of life are preserved for certain individuals, yet no, the onus is on us as well to dive into the crocodile infested pool and wade across. Good things come with a bit of discomfort. There is no growth in comfort. Some people are scared of change; they can’t take a single risk. Take calculated risks in the New Year. Whenever there is a change, a transition, there is always discomfort, but in most cases, the discomfort is temporary.
Some of us would rather die in the comfort of a very low paying job because we are scared of taking a risk and trying to improve ourselves. We receive the long service awards. There is nothing wrong with receiving long service awards as long as you are in a rewarding job. I have however realised that for most people, long service awards come with poverty.
At times it takes going through bad moments to bring out the best in us. I lost my last job in 2010 after the expiry of a contract. After the loss of the job, I did and learnt many things that got me to grow and be a better person.
These are things I could have not done or learnt, had I stayed in that job. It took me losing my job to realise my potential and reach out to greater goals in life. People will face problems, but make sure you take them as challenges not problems. Problems are difficult and they seem not to have solutions. Challenges are there to make you grow. You get to think out of the box. You cannot grow when your life is like a Luna Park “Merry-Go-Round” – where you just sit and enjoy.
You might have been going through a test in your marriage in the past year and you were seriously considering throwing in the towel. Is that the best for you? Is that the best for the children? Is that the best for all your beloved around you? Those who are pushing you into the divorce will celebrate when you finally divorce. Can’t the challenges facing the marriage be addressed? Have you talked to someone? Have you exhausted all channels to save the marriage? You might have been going through a terrible patch at the workplace.
Maybe you are one of the unlucky ones with an evil boss. A boss who has neither heart nor soul. You are considering quiting. Would you quit your job in this economy because of a boss who is possessed by Beelzebub (the Queen of demons). Hang in there, circumstances change. Find ways of co-existing with “Beelzebub.” You cannot allow yourself to leave your job because of another human being who is having their own problems and they are relieving themselves on you. Take the beginning of the year to be another chance to face those challenges head on.
The New Year presents another chance to fight that spirit of giving up whether a relationship, marriage, business, career or job. At times, circumstances will push you into situations you were not quite ready to be in. You will be pushed into the pool of crocodiles. The idea is not to shout for help, but to face the crocodiles and wade yourself to safety.
In life we have enemies; it’s a fact of life. Even the son of God had enemies but he faced them head on. We have people who are always skimming to push us into the crocodile infested pools.
There are people at the workplace skimming to get us out of that job. There people wanting to bring down our business.
I want to say in the past year, those who pushed you into the mouths of alligators and crocodiles may have helped you to reach the Promised Land; they may have kicked the frog into the water. It’s now time to go out and seek those opportunities, start that journey to the Promised Land.
We might have failed at some things in the past year. We might have failed an exam, a driving road test or started a business which collapsed as soon as it took off. Have we given up? That is why there are repeats and supplementary examinations; it is part of the education system.
The business collapsed but that’s how it is in life, you don’t always win. Not all business ventures will succeed. You don’t always get jobs for all the interviews you attend. Give it another chance. We all remember our Primary School song “Try, try, try again – if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again . . .” We all fall at some point in life. The problem is not the falling; it’s failing to rise after falling. I was watching a kindergarten race recently. A little one fell badly during the race. I thought she would cry and call out to her mother to come and pick her up but “lo”, the little one rose, shook off the dust from her sports kit and continued with the race. That is the spirit we need in 2015.
Online Reporter